Li'l Duce's Reviews Palace

[cigar joe]

It is based on the Richard Speck's case of the year before.

I'll check it out.

[cigar joe]

Yea, agree ran a bit too long but it was interesting stylistically.

[titoli]

Trois jours ? vivre (1957) Ventura plays a secondary role while the leads are the french Farley Granger (Daniel Gelin) and my second (after Signoret) unfavourite french actress Moreau. This thriller is interesting as to the finale, as the "good" (but actually bad) guy lives in the end, while the bad (but in this case innocent) guy dies. Tolerable, but to be seen just once, though it's time I read Musset's Lorenzaccio to better appreaciate it, who knows. 6/10

[titoli]

Serie noire (1979)  Uneven, as it alternates comedy and drama and so even the characters do not appear to be well defined and credible. Blier's especially is absurd in the finale and so the wife's, her insisting where D. got the money (and how does she come to infer that the money is related to the double murder, as all the papers concur in describing the old woman as pennyless?). The part with D. and the Greek at D.'s home doesn't make sense and could have been cut out profitably. D. thinking that B. won't check on him and wonder where he got the money is incredible. I'll check the Thompson book (with little hope it will make more sense than the movie). 6/10

Just finished the novel. Which is head and shoulder above the movie, thanx to the narration in first person by the protagonist, much more sympathetic and alive than D. The wife makes the connection with the double murder because she finds the social security card of the Greek in the bed. And  the protagonist (whose name is Frank but always called "Dolly"(!) in the novel) boss comes to understand how things went because he knows where the lady got the money and who she really is.  The plot is practically identical except for the last chapter: which makes a whole lotta difference, explainig how things ended for the boss, the girl and the narrator. And the finale of that last chapter (told alternatively in italics and normal  characters)  just mixes up things for the narrator once more.

[titoli]

Prisoner of Honor (1991) Ken Russell's take on the Dreyfus case. Being a tv movie there's no much room for the director's visual oddities except for the short theatre episode. And being  83' long, much of the story is left aside. Still a 6/\0

[cigar joe]

The Boston Strangler (1968) Excellent thriller, making excellent use of multipanel screen. What doesn't persuade me completely is the cast. Yeah. Fonda is wasted: the role is too small for him. Curtis has been praised for it, still, I'm not 100% sure he's here as good as in Sweet Smell of Success.  His closing his eyes when murdering is too banal. Still the movie grips you from start to end. 9\10

Just watched it again. I think the first time I saw it was on TV and in Pan & Scan which decimated the multi screen effect. Agree, for me a 7-8/10.  I feel the last quarter dragged once Curtis was in the sanitarium.

[Cusser]

Noticed Tony Curtis films on TCM.  Even included Taras Bulba, which has great film score by Franz Waxman; I remember buying the soundtrack album used in 1984, as was long out of print.  Now I also have purchased a later-issued CD.

[greenbudgie]

I reckon 'The Boston Strangler' should have boosted the career of Tony Curtis. Maybe it was controversial at that time but i reckon it is a good chilling mystery. I'll give it a rewatch before giving it a rating. It's a pity that Tony Curtis returned to soppy comedies after making this.

[titoli]

Death Wish II (1982) Action moves to LA.  I've never been there (and don't plan to, even with no china virus) but I doubt I could easily find a certain person just by walking (!) around. Still the vigilante manages to find all the members of the gang and doesn't even bother to ask the first two to tell him where he can find the others. Jimmy Page is the author of the ost. Still a good time waster. 6/10

[titoli]

The Battle of Algiers (1966) I saw this twice before and never particularly impressed if not by the great final scenes. But even the thriller main body of the story acquires value on a bigger screen with the Casbah labyrinth being a great set. There are some melodramatic scenes which do not belong to any of the two parts of the story, which are made even worse by Morricone's (or Pontecorvo?s) comment.  So I give it 7-8/10.

[drinkanddestroy]

The Battle of Algiers (1966) I saw this twice before and never particularly impressed if not by the great final scenes. But even the thriller main body of the story, on a bigger screen, acquires value on a bigger screen with the Casbah labyrinth being a great set. There are some melodramatic scenes which do not belong to any of the two parts of the story, which are made even worse by Morricone's (or Pontecorvo?s) comment.  So I give it 7-8/10.

this is better than 8/10

[titoli]

Copland (1997) Corrupt cops dull story, it gets 4/10, with a good Keitel and a miscast-as-can-be De Niro. But it is funny because it was shot at a time when Hollywood thought it could still make you believe that a cop shooting at a car driven by two blacks (hi on something and with drugs in their possession) because they had deliberately bumped on him and run away and so killing them, needed to be covered up by his colleagues. Which is the shenanigan on which the whole story turns. Also, there's a mention of an arrested "choke-hold" cop later killed by his colleagues.     

[moorman]

this is better than 8/10

I didn't like it so 8 is even high for me with that movie. 

[titoli]

La femme du boulanger (1938) French comedy is specialized in bitter-SWEET stories (the italian ones preferring BITTER-sweet ones) and this was an early example. It actually should be titled The wife of Raimu, because  the actor towers over it all from start to end. But the basic story, though it has its moments, lacks credibility because the character of the wife lacks substance. She's young and married to a baker who's double her age, not satisfying her sexually and she abandons him him first chance for a shepherd younger and fit. So why does she comes back to him? Because the lover is a God fearing italian, who's afraid of the priest come to the rescue of the lost sheep and runs away. Ridiculous. And not only nowadays but even at that time. I haven't read the original novel and not intend to check whether this was a finale devised for the stage  and movie adaptation. But it just doesn't work. Still, as said, the movie is worth watching for the way Raimu renders the reaction of the cuckold through many different emotional stages. 7/10     

[titoli]

Tot? le Mok? (1949)

One of the best Tot?'s comedies, a spoof of P?p? le Moko can be seen on youtube with accurate english subtitles, though unfortunately the numerous word-plays are impossible to translate effectively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyAufVJ7QPk